Thursday, May 8, 2014

The Acorn of Ages

There has been a lot of discussion across the net and pod waves about the Acorn of the Ages and its utility. To say that it divides opinion is an understatement.

The item allows you to place D3 Citadel Woods at the start of the game. This is before deployment. The woods then scatter 2D6". These woods can be any of the types in the Mysterious Woods listing e.g. Venom Thicket, Abyssal Wood etc. It also costs 100 points.

Pretty much all the analysis I have seen with this could best be described as rampantly optimistic. Not only has the glass been half full but in fact the overflow solved drought problems in Saharan Africa. In the analysis you always seem to have 3 woods, they are always in the right place, your opponent is always a fool etc.

So let's look at some of the realities:

It is D3. To the mathematically challenged that means a third of the time you get one wood.

The wood scatters. Now you can theoretically control some of that scatter by placement next to other terrain but it is still variable.

It costs 100 points. That means only a Lord level character can have it - and if he does he is otherwise devoid of Magic Items. This in fact means it costs significantly more than 100 points because not only do you have the item cost, you have the access cost (the character) and the protection cost. By my reckoning at least you would want to be buying some MR and you will need a secondary caster to access Arcane items.

But I hear you say....you can Moonstone from wood to wood Spirit Leeching enemy characters, teleporting then warping away. Or you can get devastating charges in rear and flank.

And yes you can. However a lot has to go right. And most of these wildly optimistic outcomes mean that you are predicating an awful lot on your opponent not reacting or having protection of their own.

However I would wager that 90% of the time that reality won't even begin to approach these wildly fantastic outcomes. Sure 10% of the time it will.

For me I'd never build a game plan around those odds. Certainly - and I wait to be proved wrong - if Wood Elves do win events it won't be with the Acorn in their ranks.

23 comments:

My view on this item is that all Wood Elf players should take it (Blessing of the Ancients, and Forest Stalker) but should resent the hell out of it. 100 points for d3 forests is a rip off but considering we get our casting bonus and pseudo prowess in forests we should be taking it.

I have to agree with Mr Dunn here. Cant see the value. From the armies I have seen, the points are so tight that you can't fit the double level 4 build without compromising the rest of the list, and when you want to run sisters as well I cant see you having enough dice for double lvl4. This means your lord lvl4 and general has no protection or arcane item. Running a lvl 1-2 is an option to get that scroll, but again dice maybe an issue.

Granted, it only averages 2 forests and could only give you one. But that's in addition to the free one the Wood Elves bring with them everywhere they go (don't leave home without it). It's still enough to choke up the field a bit, if it suits your army.

I do think you'll see players getting the acorn and planting a row of trees roughly across the centre of the table. Shoot straight through it using the arrows of "we are Tomb Kings and never take penalties to hit", whilst opponents that have to roll to hit will suffer considerably more. And if you do take a second mage, give her the treesinging staff. If you force people to charge in through the row of forests (preferrably bogging them there with a wall of Eternal Guard, Treemen, whatever) you could have a couple of swings at them with the boosted damage of the spell.

Also I should say that I haven't heard all these proclamations of how great the acorn is. If people are talking it up quite as much as you say, then they're wrong. But that doesn't stop you being wrong too. I think the acorn could be used, but the cost and naked lord character are definitely downsides.

Greg, I hope you are not suggesting I am wrong! Please keep this discussion in the real world.

Look I love the romance of the Acorn. It's great people want to find the silver bullet that solve all the Woodies problems but it's not the Book, it's not the Banner...it's not Tetto Ekko or Throgg. To get the utility people are craving, there's not going to be a lot of points left.

Two words: Blood Forests! Get another Spellsinger and give the tree singing to her, have both wizards with Life so you pretty much have to have Awakening of the Wood and put the forests in between you and opponent. That way either they have to be fast enough to run through the forest in one turn, go around or take the hits. Not a game winner, but it may break up their army enough to give your shooting enough time to kill them. Still as Pete says, it is ALOT of points.

And personally I just love the bit in the fluff about the 'last Squirrel to eat one of the acorns'. Hilarious!